Heat

[anotherbob]

Man it was hot today. And I swear the blend I smoked tasted more sour then it ever has. Anyone else notice such a thing on really hot humid days. Oh it's around midnight and it's almost 90 degrees and it's cooled off. Or is it something else. Oh it started out normal.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I don’t notice any change in taste, but 100+ degree summers are the norm around here, usually with high humidity too. It gets downright suffocating.
I usually just have a smoke early, before the sun is in full force (before 7:00 AM since we’re apparently in the same time zone), and then again in the evening as it’s going down. It’s still pretty hot, but at least it’s not “give you swamp-ass” hot.

 

[Servant King]

Hot and unusually humid here (north of LA), but a monsoonal rainstorm came along and cooled it down a lot. After the storm passed, I decided to try my sample of Sutliff 515 RC-1. Tasted like ass, frankly. Next time, I'll just drink a gallon of apple cider vinegar and call it good. I made it through about a quarter of the bowl before giving up, and reloading my Sav with a bowl of SPC Plum Pudding Bourbon Barrel Aged 2020. Redeemed the whole experience.

Would the Sutliff have tasted like W.C. Fields' asscrack sweat if it hadn't been so humid? Probably, but who knows for sure? I'd need access to a lab to figure that one out, not to mention a lab coat, all those fancy beakers and test tubes, and the all-too-obvious look of smug superiority on my collegiate white-boy chemistry major face. ?

 

[craig61a]

When there’s high humidity I dry out my tobacco a little more…

 

[Brendan]

In winter at the moment but I had a lousy smoke the other night due to 96% humidity even though it was only 6 degrees Celsius, or about 43 Fahrenheit.
Was smoking a bowl of PS LNF that I had basically left out for 24hrs or more, had no flavour, could not keep it lit etc.
Didn't think to check the humidity before hand being "cold" weather and all.It's the only thing I could put it down to.

 

[odobenus]

Man it was hot today. And I swear the blend I smoked tasted more sour then it ever has. Anyone else notice such a thing on really hot humid days. Oh it's around midnight and it's almost 90 degrees and it's cooled off. Or is it something else. Oh it started out normal.

Most definitely. I've just had to take a week off from smoking because everything tastes wrong in this humidity, and the leaf re-hydrates instantly so won't stay lit, etc. Also sometimes find the N-experience a bit unpleasant when I'm being fucking parboiled.

 

[Bluemonter]

Maybe try a Navy Flake.
Worked for sailors way back when.....

 

[Dudditz]

Man it was hot today. And I swear the blend I smoked tasted more sour then it ever has. Anyone else notice such a thing on really hot humid days. Oh it's around midnight and it's almost 90 degrees and it's cooled off. Or is it something else. Oh it started out normal.

I definitely noticed a difference. My bowl was certainly hotter than normal and the gurgle factor was kicking in. I tend to smoke too quickly as I still really don't know what the hell I am doing...but it seemed the heat and humidity complicated matters.

 

[kgs]

The heat makes everything unpleasant. (Yes everything.)

I have lived in one of the coldest places on earth, and also in one of the hottest places on earth. I can say definitively that any extreme of temperature basically sucks. The best temperature is room temperature.

I really do not smoke outside these days, especially in this summer heat and humidity. I have noticed that smoking tastes best in the 55-75F range.

High temperatures do seem to affect flavor in a bad way. I don't know why that it. I suspect that it has to do more with humidity and moisture than it does actual temperature. That's my hunch.

 

[kcghost]

Heat and humidity are the naturals enemies of pipe smokers.

 

[STP]

It’s hard to enjoy anything when it is this hot ?

 

[captpat]

I don't think the heat and humidity change the tobacco taste, at least for me, but it makes a piping session less enjoyable. I use a fan in the garage to make it a little more tolerable.

 

[JOHN72]

I like the "cold" seasons best for smoking in general. Now in the summer, I feel more pleasure with mixture virginia Black Cavendish, red flake, navy flake, in this type of tobaccoes. And less the mixtures with a lot of latakia or burley. I like to smoke very slowly and relaxed. I can't stand smoking without spiritual and environmental balance.....?....in the line of the friend STP............

 

[burleybreath]

I switch to cigars. Heat and humidity just seems to go well with cigars. Just as it does with, say, a gin and tonic.

 

[Chasing Embers]

No difference here. Hot or cold a pipe smokes the same to me.

 

[anotherbob]

I noticed a real difference with English blends. Others yeas but nothing dramatic. Glad it's not just me. I guess I'll smoke more aros and navy cuts until the weather doesn't suck.

 

[anotherbob]

No difference here. Hot or cold a pipe smokes the same to me.

you're some kind of mutant freak (my favorite people are all mutant freaks, normal people are so booring). Though you did say you're not too into latakia and that seemed to be in the blends most effected too.

 

[solideogloria86]

I haven't necessarily noticed a difference in flavor, because I smoke inside 99% of the time. But I have noticed that these past two weeks I've been outside doing a lot of yard work, and being out in the heat just zaps any desire to smoke once I come in. I definitely smoke way more in colder weather. Not sure exactly why that is?

 

[timelord]

It's winter here; and just like @Brendan N in NSW it was 6c this morning (or bloody freezing as I call it); did creep up to 13c (55f) by mid-arvo though.

Only difference I've noticed from smoking in summer (28c-35c in these parts) is the need to put on thermals, thick pullover, woolie hat, gloves, coat and scarf before going out to smoke.
???

 

[Epip Oc'Cabot]

For me, in my region.... where there is extreme humidity most of the Summer and temperatures often in the 90s and sometimes even 100 or so..... like others have said..... I find especially dry pipe tobacco to be best. I tend to not notice any appreciable taste difference due to heat.

However, I have regularly found in the coldest times of the Winter.... when it can often be as low as -20 F degrees...... that my pipe tobacco has a somewhat “sweeter” aspect to the flavor than usual. Not sure how to explain that.

Obviously for both of the above.... I mean when smoking outside. ?